Calaveras
County
Biographies
EUGENE E. BURCE
Eugene Edgar Burce, of Mokelumne
Hill, has been a resident of California since 1854. He claims Rhode Island as the state of his
nativity, his birth having occurred there on the 2nd of April,
1851. He was therefore but three years
of age when he arrived in California and as he grew to manhood he became deeply
interested in the affairs of the state, having ever manifested a laudable
disposition to support all movements and measures which have contributed to the
public good. He is of Scotch lineage,
his ancestors having been early settlers of Rhode Island, where they located on
crossing the Atlantic from the country of hills and heather.
Ebenezer Parker Burce, the father of
the subject, was born in Massachusetts and was married there to Miss Jane
Strange, a native of his own state. On
crossing the plains to California in 1854 they brought with them their two
children, but Judge Burce is now the only survivor. They arrived at Volcano on the 12th
of August, 1854, and he was there employed in building the canal for two
weeks. Subsequently he came to Mokelumne
Hill and carried a hod to assist in building the
first store in the town. For a year he
engaged in mining and later devoted his energies to shoemaking, which vocation
he followed up to the time of his death, which occurred in the home in which he
had resided from the time when they took up their abode in Mokelumne Hill. She and her husband were strong temperance
people and were of very high moral worth, their
influence and support being ever given to those things which tend to ennoble
and uplift man.
Judge Burce was therefore reared
amid the refining influences of a good home, and in the public schools of
Mokelumne Hill he acquired his literary education, which was supplemented by a
course of study in Heald’s Business College.
He was graduated there in 1871 and afterward learned the printer’s trade
in the office of the Calaveras Chronicle.
He worked his way steadily upward, being connected with the paper for
sixteen years. He became its able editor
and publisher and is still the owner of the plant, but has leased it to its
present publisher. In politics he has
been a life-long Republican and ever edited his journal in the interests of
that party. In political circles he is a
recognized factor, his influence being potent for the good of the organization
with which he is identified. In 1898 he was
elected a justice of the peace and has since intelligently and ably filled that
office.
Mr. Burce has one of the nice homes
of Mokelumne Hill. He was married on the
3rd of July, 1873, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Shire, a native of Iowa,
who came to California during her early girlhood. She was reared and educated in this sate and by
her marriage has become the mother of three children: Gladys, Shirley and Charles Frederick. The Judge is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, has
passed all the chairs in both fraternities and has been a representative to the
grand lodge. His Masonic record is most
creditable. He received the sublime
degree of Master Mason in October, 1898, in Mokelumne Hill Lodge, No. 298, and
has since been deeply interested in the work of the order, doing all in his
power to inculcate its principles among men.
He is now serving his second term as the master of the lodge, an honor
that is conferred upon few whose identification with the fraternity does not
cover a longer period. For almost half a
century he has been a resident of Calaveras County and is now widely and favorably
known.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 438-439. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies